* FAQS: Your Production *
Below is a list of our most commonly asked questions asked by customers using our kits at home. Just click on the question to be taken to the answer!
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What is the difference between a "standard jar" and a "wide-mouth" jar?
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Why is my TDS Meter not giving me the Parts Per Million (ppm) readings you say I should be getting?
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I want to make higher 'parts per million' colloidal silver. Is is possible with your generators?
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I see gray/black "gunk" beginning to form on one of the rods of each pair. Should I be concerned?
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I keep getting 2ppm to 4ppm readings with my TDS meter. Is this a correct reading?
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What Parts Per Million (ppm) of colloid content do you produce for your use?
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What does the laser pointer beam look like so I will know when my colloidal silver is ready?
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Can I use filtered water, or "purified" water (or RO water) during my colloidal silver production?
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Which generator do you use, the battery-powered unit or the electric unit?
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How do you store your colloidal silver, and how long does it last?
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What is the difference between a "wide-mouth" jar
and a "regular" jar?
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Why is my TDS Meter not giving me the Parts Per Million (ppm) readings you say I should be getting?
TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meters are perhaps the most common method individuals use to test their home-produced colloidal silver after production.
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The controversy arises over the fact that off the shelf, retail purchased TDS meters are actually incapable of measuring colloids, and especially small-particle silver. TDS meters are actually designed to measure impurities in the water. They are incapable of measuring actual colloids.
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Please refer to the images on the FAQS: Production page illustrating the obvious visual difference between agitating the water, and not agitating the water during production. The amber colored product consistently measured 25ppm over time with a Hanna PWT meter, while the clearer product on the right consistently measured 16ppm. The production times, quality of silver, amount of DC voltage were all the same.
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From pages on the internet, we find this valuable information concerning TDS meters and their lack of effectiveness in measuring colloid particles:
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"In truth a TDS meter gives a more accurate reading of the purity of the water rather than giving a spot on count of silver colloids. Some of the leading manufacturers of TDS meters agree to this fact although the meters are widely used for counting silver colloids. The leading manufacturers agree that TDS meters are not the perfect tools for measuring the colloid count. On the contrary this is a perfect tool for gauging the impurities present in your distilled water. You will find TDS meters being promoted as effective tools for testing colloidal silver ppm when in truth it does not give you an accurate reading.
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"In order to get a 100% accurate ppm you will be required to send your colloidal silver sample to a laboratory which is well equipped to analyze the CS. This could turn out to be a rather expensive and time consuming process. This is why most of the producers of CS make use of TDS meters despite the fact that they only give you a relative ppm of the sample.
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"When using a TDS meter the reading obtained is written as the number obtained followed by ppm. Although the TDS meter does not give you a spot on accurate result but in general the results obtained are accurate enough to be used for basic purposes. This is because by making use of TDS meters you will not have to rely on guesses in order to determine the concentration of your CS solution."
-- www.silver-colloids.com
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A TDS meter is designed to measure impurities in water. Because we are agitating the water, we are generating minute suspended particles at a size of 1nm to 2nm, which are incapable of being measured by a TDS meter.
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Ultimately, when using a TDS meter to check your colloidal silver production, please know that your meter is simply incapable of measuring colloids. It is only capable of measuring impurities in your solution.
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Please scroll down to view the parts per million (ppm) comparisons during production times of an over-the-counter TDS meter, a PWT meter, and actual colloidal content on colloidal silver produced by our generators.
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I want to make higher 'parts per million' colloidal silver.
Is it possible with your generators?
Yes. Simply produce your colloidal silver for a longer period of time. See the lists on the FAQS:Production page.
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Know that you will see an exponential increase in colloid content with longer and longer production times.
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We suggest that you increase your production time in half hour increments until you reach the desired level of colloidal content.
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I forgot to keep an eye on my colloidal silver production and have allowed it produce WAY too long. Should I just throw it away?
No. You can salvage the colloidal silver you have produced:
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1. You may pour up (and filter) the solution you have just produced, and use it as a very powerful, safe topical antiviral/ antibacterial solution for topical areas on your skin and in nasal and oral misters. We have them available on this website.
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2. You may literally salvage your colloidal silver for consumption (because it will be extremely high in colloid content) by diluting your solution with distilled water. The colloidal silver produced by our generators is so stable that diluting higher ppm solutions will not effect the stability or the effectiveness of your product. The formula you may use to dilute can be as simple as a 1:1 ratio. For example, if you produced 50ppm, you can generate 25ppm by combining your 50ppm with an equal amount of distilled water.
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I recently allowed production with a 24V transformer to slightly exceed 5 hours. My normal production period is 3-1/2 hours. I reached the desired level of colloid density with a 50/50 dilution with distilled water. After continued testing days later, I found that my colloidal silver remained stable and remained effective.
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Is there any harm in consuming small-particle silver?
Regarding consumption of small-particle silver, here's what we've discovered regarding testing:
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(After testing), no clinically important changes in any metabolic, hematologic, or urinalysis measure identified were determined. No morphological (or structural) changes were detected in the lungs, heart (cardiac function) or abdominal organs. No changes were noted in sputum reactive oxygen species or in pro-inflammatory cytokines.
Conclusion: In-vivo oral exposure of a commercial 10-ppm silver nano-particle solution over 3-, 7-, 14-day exposures does not exhibit clinically important changes in metabolis, hematologic, urine, vital sign changes, physical findings or imaging changes visualized by MRI.
-- by Munger, Radwanski, Stoddard, Shaaban, Grainger, Yost at University of Utah
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Frankly, in the dosages described above, over the years I have consumed colloidal silver, I have encountered no ill effects. The “blue man” syndrome ("argyria") we’ve all been frightened into believing is a risk, can only be experienced, from my reading and personal use, if you produce colloidal silver 100x stronger, and consume upwards of 1 quart to 1 gallon of this super-strong solution per day on long periods of weeks and months.
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There is also evidence that persons adding salt or saline to their water during production are generating extremely large amounts of silver chloride, which can be harmful in large doses, and is thought to create the “blue man” syndrome. So I don’t recommend using salt or saline during production. I discuss this further on the FAQS: Other Production Methods page.
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And there's even evidence now that proteins added to keep the silver particles in suspension may also contribute to argyria. I am not familiar with the issue of adding proteins.
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However, with that said, I do recommend that you begin your colloidal silver regimen with the lowest ppm product (12ppm) and, if you are taking colloidal silver as a mineral supplement, stay with this ppm level for a while until you find yourself requiring or needing more to achieve the results you desire. If you experience ANY negative side effects that you feel might be related to the consumption of colloidal silver, immediately stop its use and contact your natural health professional for advice. Negative side effects are virtually non-existent, but possible. So responsibly begin colloidal silver in low ppm colloid densities and increase densities and consumed amounts gradually.
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How much colloidal silver should I consume?
I use colloidal silver as a nutritional supplement, to enhance the level of health in my body by better enabling my body to care for itself. Therefore, during the summer months, I hardly take colloidal silver at all because (fortunately) I and my household are generally quite healthy.
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During the fall, winter and spring months, I generally take 1 Tbl. of the 20ppm colloidal silver per day, especially when I become aware that there are colds and flu in the air. I then increase dosages and numbers of dosages throughout the day if I feel that I am possibly becoming ill. For children, the general consensus is that they take half the adult amount. But as always, for recommendations on consumption amounts, please consult your natural health practitioner.
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Most often, though, I now take colloidal silver via a nasal mister and inhaler mister. These methods provide me with superior protection over time, and require that I make colloidal silver far less often. This also means that I am producing less colloidal silver than before, and therefore my silver rods are lasting even longer!
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Is it possible to consume too much colloidal silver?
This is one of those very controversial questions that I receive on occasion. You'll find lots of information about this topic online, so I am going to simply share my own experience.
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A couple of years ago, I began to experience what I thought was an intestinal virus. I began to consume large quantities of colloidal silver in an attempt to remedy my situation. I was generating colloidal silver and drinking 1 quart of small-particle silver per day. I did this for 2 days.
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I only determined at the end of the second day that my problem was not an intestinal harmful bacteria or virus. It actually was something muscular. But it gave me the opportunity to see what would happen if I took many times the recommended dosage of small-particle silver in a short amount of time, at a time when my body did not require treatment with colloidal silver. So, realize that I had just consumed 2 quarts over a 2-day period when my body did not need colloidal silver.
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By the end of the 2nd day, I had developed diarrhea, and it continued through the night. The next day, I raced to my local retailer to purchase a bottle of live intestinal cultures. I took 3x the daily recommended maintenance dosage, every 3 hours, and my intestinal functions returned to a normal state in about 12 hours.
Obviously, a certain amount of care should be taken when consuming small-particle silver. So, the flip side of this is that when I am consuming colloidal silver to treat an ailment, my body seems to "inhale" this amazing substance, and I do not experience negative side effects, even when I consume large quantities. I think the important point is that, when it will positively aid your body in healing itself, small-particle silver is a safe and effective alternative to pharmaceutical drugs.
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I keep getting 2ppm to 4ppm readings with my TDS meter.
Is this a correct reading?
Depending on the quality and type of TDS meter, you could potentially get a wide variety of ppm readings. Remember that a TDS meter is designed to measure only impurities in the water. A TDS meter is incapable of measuring nanoparticle colloids. (see above)
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The only reason I keep a TDS meter is so that I may verify the purity of commercially produced distilled water. Believe it or not, commercially produced distilled water is not always completely pure. And this will have an adverse affect on production.
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In essence, a TDS meter has no value in measuring nanopartical colloids and should not be relied on to provide you with a ppm reading for your production. I suggest relying on the production times in your instruction sheets to achieve the ppm you desire.
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As a guide only, I developed these numbers to provide me with relative results using a TDS meter and a PWT meter (a more sophisticated measuring tool made by Hanna Instruments, available for about $80, and is said to actually measure ionic silver).
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What Parts-Per-Million of colloid content do you produce
for your use?
Personally, we produce a retail-level of parts per million (ppm) for daily oral consumption of colloidal silver as a mineral supplement. This level is 20ppm, and can be produced based on the chart for the production times listed on the FAQS:Production page. (Each generator kit purchase includes guidelines for a variety of ppm levels of production.)
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At home we produce a much higher ppm concentration (50ppm to 60ppm) for our nasal, oral and bottle misters. We discovered that the level of effectiveness vastly increases with a higher colloid concentration. I also use the higher colloid concentration when treating an affliction. These higher levels can be achieved by allowing the production process to extend for approximately 2 more hours.
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What does the laser pointer beam look like so I will know when my colloidal silver is ready?
Capturing the laser beam with a standard digital camera accurately is a bit of a challenge. However, the image shown here does show a fairly accurate image of the beam strength of the colloidal silver using a 12V DC power supply with 4-1/2 hours of production time. This silver particle product measures 16ppm with a PWT meter (see above) because the water is agitated.
It is helpful to check your colloidal silver with the laser beam in a darkened room. And be sure to allow the water to calm prior to checking.
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I see a gray/black coating, or “gunk,” beginning to form on one of the silver rods. Should I be concerned?
During the course of production, it is not unusual to begin to see a gray coating forming on the negative silver rods (those that have the black alligator clip attached to them). This is simply silver oxide, is harmless, and is a by-product of producing colloidal silver with electricity. Use of electricity is the only method available to produce colloidal silver at home. Know that if you are producing 12ppm level colloidal silver, you will probably only see a light “graying” of the negative rod and little or no silver oxide. For longer production periods, more silver oxide will form until you may see a "furring" happening on the rods, and even see some of the mass break away and float in your silver solution. This is nothing to become alarmed about.
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At the end of a long production period, after you have wiped your silver rods clean, gently buffed them and put them away, pour your silver solution through a funnel lined with 2 coffee filters into your clean storage containers. This will capture most all the silver oxide formed during production.
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As a tip: You may allow your colloidal silver to sit / rest for a couple of days. Silver oxide is heavy, and fine particles of silver oxide that may not have been trapped by the filters after production can settle to the bottom of your storage jar. Simply pour this solution through 2 more coffee filters if you find silver oxide has settled. You will notice that the settled silver oxide will usually remain in the bottom of the original jar, and can be cleaned easily with soapy hot water.
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Know also that the presence silver oxide does not affect your silver nanoparticle content, nor the effectiveness of your colloidal silver, nor its stability. Because there was some controversy regarding the presence of silver oxide and its possible influence on particle readings, we allowed our own colloidal silver to rest for 15 days prior to lab testing. So know that you will get the same readings immediately after production that you will get weeks and months after production. Agitating the water with an air bubbler generates a completely stable and effective end product.
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Which low-voltage power supply do you use, and for what length of time do you produce your colloidal silver (or what ppm reading do you like best)?
I personally use a 24-volt transformer when I produce colloidal silver at home for myself and my family.
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Years ago, before learning of the value of agitating the water with an air bubbler, I discovered that a lower voltage 12V DC transformer produced the cleanest end result (in my opinion).
However, when agitating the water, I can produce a clean, stable, effective product even at higher voltages, and do it in a shorter amount of time. If I am agitating the water and using a 12V DC tranformer for 5 hours to generate a relative silver content of 16ppm, I discovered I can use a 24V tranformer for 3-1/2 hours and accomplish the same thing.
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So I and my household use the 24V Basic Kit found here on this website. I produce colloidal silver (while agitating the water) for 4-1/2 hours to generate a 45ppm colloid content. I have grown to prefer the higher colloid content because it is more effective more quickly when consuming orally. It's also very effective when using in a nasal mister, an oral mister inhaler, in eye-droppers, when spraying onto surfaces to disinfect in your home, and on your body to deal cuts, wounds, sunburns and fungus outbreaks. You can find all those sprayers and dispensers on our site here.
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In the interest of producing a quality product in a shorter amount of time, I use the 24V transformer kit. However, all of our kit designs will produce the same quality level of colloidal silver when following our production guidelines.
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Can I use filtered water, or "purified" water or reverse osmosis water during my colloidal silver production?
Very simple answer. No.
Only use distilled water during production.
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The reason is very simple. Distilled water is completely free of any elements other than the water molecule. Filtered and purified water still contain minerals that can react adversely within the electrical environment process, bonding with the silver in ways that will at least produce a less than optimal product, and at worst produce a harmful one.
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But if you wish to try it, I understand. I was one of those kids who my mom told me not to touch the flame because I could get burned. But I had to touch it anyway, just to see for myself. And sure enough, I got burned. So, try it once just to see what the end result is, only if you are curious. My suspicion is that you will have an end result that will be cloudy, and vary from black to yellow in color.
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If you wind up with this result, just dump the mixture, go buy a gallon of distilled water, and begin again.
And if you used store-bought distilled water and generated the cloudy, dark result, try purchasing another gallon from a different location if possible. Believe it or not, commercially produced "distiled water" is not always pure. If you get the same result, purchase another distilled water brand from a natural health store. It's worth even a dramatic increase in the price of your water to get the quality of colloidal silver you need to be getting from your home production.
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How long will my silver rods last?
As you have viewed on the site, I sell ONLY .9999 silver rods. It means the rods are 99.99% pure. It's the purest silver I can locate and it's the only silver I use. And it's 10x more pure than .999 silver rods. I only want purity with my personal product, and I presume you do too.
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I have been very satisfied with the life production expentancy of 14-gauge .9999 silver rods. It's an affordable product, and extremely pure.
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I have used the same rods for about 3 years. Three years ago I was producing roughly 1 to 2 quarts of colloidal silver per month with a 20ppm strength. That gave me roughly 75 quarts with these rods.
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Then, a couple of years ago, I began primarily using nasal and oral misters for health maintenance, and my consumption of colloidal silver dropped enormously. I basically stopped drinking colloidal silver unless I found myself fighting off a bug or the flu.
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Today, I make about 12 quarts a year on average, depending on the time of year as well. And I still have quite a bit of life left in these rods!
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You will notice over time that they will appear to "shrink" in size as more and more silver is utilized in your production procedures.
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Based on my usage, and in the beginning years of my personal production, I would conservatively say that you can anticipate producing at least 50 to 75 quarts of high quality small-particle silver with a set of $25, .9999 pure silver rods, at 20ppm.
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As a heads up: Please be wary of WAY underpriced "pure" silver rods. Silver is truly one item that can be said that you'll get what you pay for. Do you realize that visually you cannot tell the difference between .999 silver and .9999 silver? Yet, the .9999 silver is 10x more pure than .999. So, if you're getting .9999 silver at the same price as .999, or if you are seeing 12-gauge silver rods at the same price as 14-gauge (12-gauge is larger, thus containing more silver weight, and is usually much more expensive), please be cautious.
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I've heard that you have to be careful about using commercial silver because it may have come from China, and could have ingredients in it that could be potentially harmful. Is this true?
What is the origin of your silver?
To me, this is actually a legitimate concern, and is information you should have prior to purchasing silver for colloidal silver production. "What is the origin of the silver I will be using? Do you have a Material Certification for the silver I will be using?"
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Our silver is .9999 pure (that is, it is 99.99% pure silver, and is the purest silver we are able to purchase).
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If you find pure silver for sale online at incredibly low prices, you probably should be suspicious. I wanted to provide you with this information prior to purchasing. I wrote to our longtime, trusted silver supplier to find out the origin of our silver, and requested a Material Certification of our silver's contents.
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Here's their reply regarding origins:
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"Our fabricators are located in the US and comply with the Conflict Minerals section of the Dodd Frank Act. The wire can be milled from silver bars (Comex etc.) or coins (Silver Maple Leafs, generic rounds etc.). It’s hard to say because a batch of the wire can have many sources. We just specify that it assays at 99.99% silver."
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Below is the Material Certification of the .9999 product sold on this site from March 2023:
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How much colloidal silver do you make at a time?
For personal use, I usually make one quart jar at a time. This quantity will normally last me up to 2 to 4 weeks if I am taking 1 to 2 Tbsp. per day as a mineral supplement (sometimes I just forget to take it, and at other times family members are joining me in taking it, which accounts for the big time variance in how long the colloidal silver will last).
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However, since I have been using the nasal mister on mostly a daily basis, I and my family use much less colloidal silver, and a quart jar can last 2 or 3 months (depending on the time of year), and still retain its clarity and stability.
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Which generator do you use (battery-powered or low voltage plug-in electric)?
I use the 24-volt power supply most often. I use the battery-powered device when an electrical plug is either not available, or I don't want to string an electrical extension cord across a room. The battery-operated devices work well when traveling by car. When traveling by plane, I take the 24-volt electric transformer in my suitcase and store it with my other chargers (phone, camera, etc.) In terms of simplicity, I use the 24-volt transformer primarily.
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Over the years of use and testing, we discovered this: the higher the voltage, and the lower the amperage, the more quickly you will be able to produce the colloidal silver you desire.
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Let me illustrate. We discovered that a 24V power supply will cut the production time in half over a 12V power supply. AND: if the power supply is 500mA (or 1/2 Amp), the same holds true over the 1A power supply. These results became apparent when we did experiments with a 24V 1000mA (1A) power supply. We found that it took twice as long to produce colloidal silver than when we used a 24V 500mA power supply.
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With that said, getting back to the value of the battery-powered generator, real value of the battery generator is if you have lost electricity as the result of a power outage, if you live off the grid or on a boat or in a motor home, or if you are on the road a lot, you can take this one with you anywhere. It's also great to have on hand so that you can produce colloidal silver anytime, anywhere, in virtually all circumstances.
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How do you store colloidal silver, and how long does it last?
I store my small-particle colloidal silver in a glass jar. Mine happens to contain a metal lid (it's a basic canning jar) but the metal lid has never seemed to have an effect on the colloidal silver itself. I then store the jar in the dark in a kitchen cabinet.
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During a particularly challenging health time in my household a while back, I began just leaving the jar of colloidal silver out on the kitchen cabinet available for family members to use. It was just a matter of convenience to leave it out. What I was not aware of was that during the afternoons when I was not at home, the jar was sitting in full sunlight for several hours. After a few days I discovered that the colloidal silver was becoming pale yellow as it apparently responded to the UV rays of the sun. It also seemed to acquire a slight metallic taste. From then on, I began always making sure the jar of colloidal silver was returned to its place in the kitchen cabinet away from direct sunlight.​
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How do I know when the colloidal silver is ready?
I use a laser pointer shining through the jar during colloidal silver production (pen lasers are available on this site). It is interesting to shine the light through the distilled water before beginning to make small-particle silver. You will see no beam. The water is pure. Within 20 or 30 minutes, shine the light through the water again. You will begin to see particle reflections early on in a beam that will become visible. After a few hours of production time for quart jars, in a dark room, when I see a denser, but translucent beam of light shining through the jar, I know my small-particle silver is ready.
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I live in Europe. Will your generators work outside the US?
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The battery-powered kits will work anywhere, and all of them simply require standard 9V batteries (please see the Battery Generators page here).
There are 2 electric components included in our electrtic kits: the power supply and the air pump. The power supply contains the North American 2-prong plug, and has an input rating of 120-220V. The air pump, however, is only rated for 120V input.
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So, here's a possible solution to use our electric kits outside the US: Purchase the Silva-Cap jar and cap, the power supply, and the silver rods. These are all sold separately on our Generator Components page. In your own country, purchase a plug adapter that will take you from the North American 120V 2-prong plug to your country's configuration. These are relatively inexpensive. Then purchase a small acquarium pump either in a pet supply store or online. This will set you up to begin production based on our production method.
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Thank you for your interest in our website, in our products and in the production of quality, stable, effective colloidal silver for you and those you love!
We hope you will stay in touch with us.
If you would like to reach out to us,
the best way to reach us is via email: robb.mcdaniel@gmail.com
or via text at: 870-480-9700​​​​​​​​​​
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There are a variety of reasons that we offer you a choice in jar type and size.
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Mainly, it is because some customers have a lot of wide-mouth jars they wish to use in which to store their colloidal silver. Others just like the additional "working space" available on a wide-mouth jar lid.
Either jar is an option, although the "standard" jar lid continues to be the most popular, and will be shipped to you as the default jar style if you have not made a choice during the shopping process.
The image here is an actual photo submitted by a customer who used what she thought was pure distilled water. She had admitted that she thought the water might have been contaminated prior to production of colloidal silver. You can see that there are compounds existing in the water that become visible and produce a less than ideal end result. Without understanding what compounds have been formed, you are never sure if consuming this product will be harmful or safe.
Production Time:
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2-1/2 Hours
3 Hours
3-1/2 Hours
4-1/2 Hours
5 Hours
"TDS" Meter:
$9.95
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3ppm
5ppm
7ppm
12ppm
15ppm
"PWT" Meter:
$80
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8ppm
12ppm
20ppm
28ppm
35ppm
Particle Content:​
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12ppm
20ppm
32ppm
45ppm
60ppm
